The Power of the Pivot

Hi there. You're watching Coffee with Chrystal, and my name is Chrystal Hurst. I'm going to be sharing today about what the power of the pivot means, what it is, and how you can access it. Access that power in your life. The bottom line is you get to change each and every day. You have the power to choose who you're gonna be and what you're gonna do with this one very precious life that you have. This is a conversation I actually held last Monday around 7-ish in the morning with the Inner Circle. I go live every Monday with the Inner Circle and interact with them there, and then I share the replay of those conversations with you here on YouTube or Facebook. If you want more information about joining the Inner Circle so that you can join me live, uh, go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle, and then you can join me live on Monday mornings when I share. But I'm excited to also share this replay today with you. I would love for you to tell me right now in the comments or in the chat what change you have made in your life that's been good in the last year. Now, you might have to look for it. You might have to think about it for a moment, but I want to challenge you to do that because here's the thing that most of us don't do. We don't value our pivots and we don't pay attention to the small movements that we make that are good for us. The attitude changes, the little bit of money that we've saved, the relationships that we've engaged in or that we've cut off, the job changes, the moves. There's probably at least one thing that's been good in your life in this last year. It could be a change in you or change outside of you, but change, while sometimes we don't like it, let's be real, change can be good. So I wanna challenge you to look for it and share it because sharing it is also where you gain power to name the things in your life that are good in you or around you, and that's good for you. Okay, so I want to jump into this conversation, but I also want to make sure that you know that you have the power to join my email list, chrystalevanshurst.com. Why do you want to do that? Because there are things I only share with my email list and hey, it's free. So if you don't do anything else to make sure you hear from me and know what I'm doing and the content that I'm sharing that can be useful in your life, just go to chrystalevanshurst.com and sign your name up right under the box with my picture. All right, y'all, here we go. There is power in your pivot. I said on Instagram, you can find me on Instagram at instagram.com/chrystalhurst, C-H-R-Y-S-T-A-L-H-U-R-S-T. I posted a shot of a picture I took. Now I am doing a selfie. I'm actually using my phone to control my camera in that picture. It was snowing outside. I am wearing black underneath the gray and the colorful scarf because prior to this picture, I was in the bed. Enjoying myself. It was a Sunday afternoon in Texas, no less, snowing. And that was my plan. I had started the fireplace and I wasn't planning on doing anything in the outdoors. And my daughter called me and said, "Mom, get your camera, go outside," because she's a photographer, Karris Farris. Yes, that's her real name. And she said, "Grab some pictures. It's a gorgeous day." And I said, "Oh my goodness." And so I grabbed one of my sons and they were cold and they came out with me for a little bit. Then I grabbed another son and he came out. And, um, you know, came out with me and, you know, we were taking turns jumping in and out of the cold. And then I decided to just take my camera, take my tripod, take my phone, and then go to a different location and take some pictures. All right, so now here's the deal. I'm sitting here unplanned in my pajamas, y'all. That black outfit underneath the gray and the scarf that's colorful are pajamas. And then I throw on a cute jacket and a scarf and get to it. I was able to grab some photos that I probably won't grab again this season because it does not always snow in Texas. Because I was willing to get out of my house, right? Go to a spot that seemed to be a great spot to take some pictures, get out of my comfort zone, get my equipment, get my phone, review, remind myself of how to use the doggone remote on my phone because I'd forgotten. And grab some photos. That day of snow was a change in the weather that was not planned for. I didn't know it was going to stick because in Texas it often doesn't stick. And had I decided that that was not my plan today, I would have missed the opportunity to grab photos that aren't a part of my normal opportunity. But I had to be willing to be uncomfortable. I had to be willing um, to learn something new or to remind myself of something that I'd known. I had to be willing to ask for help. I had to be willing to engage in a plan that was not planned. Throw something on— didn't plan on wearing those clothes— and do something different. Pivots in life come because there are circumstances that you don't expect. You're not planning on them. There are opportunities that show up people that show up, jobs that show up, pain that shows up, promises that show up. There, there are things that just catch your attention, and you realize that in this season, on this day, this, this moment, that this is something you hadn't planned on. But are you going to make a shift in your plans and engage? That is a word I have heard over and over again. Pivot is a word I've heard over and over again in relationship to 2020. Because businesses that were able to pivot and decide to take their store online, not knowing how long the pandemic was gonna last or when people would actually be able to come back out, if they were able to figure out, if they weren't online before, how to get online or how to better respond to their existing online situation, a lot of those businesses have been able to survive. It wasn't their plan. They didn't have anybody digital on staff. They didn't have a web person on staff. They didn't have a social media person on staff. Maybe they didn't didn't have a robust web ordering system on staff, but because they realized the change in the weather and they decided to move from what they had on to something that they had not previously been wearing, they were able to survive. Some of you all have had to pivot in expectations for your life because maybe it is a degree that you did not plan on getting, but you realized 3 years into it that the degree you were aiming for, the money that you had already spent, it's not exactly the thing. You were afraid because you'd already spent the money. You were bummed because you'd already spent the time. But you realized that maybe based on the job market, or based on your interest, or based on a calling that God resurrected on the inside of you, that it was time for you to make a change in your major, even if it was going to take you a little bit longer to finish with the degree, the new degree that you realize you need to get, because it was a pivot. And that pivot set the stage, or would set the stage, for you doing what you love or what you feel called to do for the rest of your life. So let me tell you about a few examples when I have been invited to pivot. Some of them I've taken and some of them I have not. Number 1, on my wedding day, the lady, a really good friend of mine, her name is Rhoda Gonzalez, who was involved in a lot of our wedding planning, Priscilla's too. Before we walked down the aisle, she looked Priscilla and I in the eye. Priscilla got married before me, a couple years before me. She did the same thing for me that she did for Priscilla. She looked at us both in the eye and she said, now, Everybody's here and they are waiting on you, beautiful bride, to walk down the aisle. And then she got real serious. But if you change your mind, we can walk out of here right now. You are not married. You don't have to go through with it. The people will understand. They can take their gifts back. You can be friends with the person if, if he's not the one. You can maintain your dignity. You will get over this. If this is a decision that you're not supposed to make today, I will walk with you right now out of the back door, and we will take you somewhere where you can recover. Do not get married just because you've gone this far. If you need to make a change, It's not too late. I did not pivot that day. I walked down the aisle and I married my husband. I cannot tell you how many women I've said that to. If you've changed your mind, it's not too late. In college, I realized in my third year that instead of getting one degree, I really probably should have gotten another one. And I did not want to change because I, um, had spent the money. I'd spent the time. It's one of my regrets in life. Now, all things work together for good, and the degree I would've changed to didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but I wish I would've felt freer 3 years into my degree to change my degree plan because It just doesn't matter that much. So the first thing is, is it's never too late to pivot. The second thing is, if you feel like you cannot make a change because you're already invested, you have the rest of your life to invest in the new decision. I want to give you a third example of a time when I did not want to pivot. We— I don't like change because I don't, you know, it's like Who Moved My Cheese? If you've ever read that book. It's like the person who could deal with the change is the person who can be more resilient over time. And resilient is a word that explains who we are when we're willing to go with the flow and things don't go the way we thought they would flow. Um, but I actually did not want to change insurance. We've actually had the same, um, car insurance for a long, long time. My husband actually made a change to our homeowner's insurance, and if we bundled it, then we got a better deal. But you know, then you gotta— change takes effort, you know what I mean? It takes time. I didn't want to do it. And so we kind of got into a thing about it because, you know, whatever. But anyway, the point is, once I changed, and then when I took the time to look at it, the new company was actually cheaper. And the change wasn't as challenging as what I thought. You know, I just— change takes effort and time. You've got to put your credit card from the old insurance to the new insurance. But once I made the change, even as minor as this is, there was relief because in hindsight, the pivot to change put me in a better place. If you can get past the fear of making the change. We don't want to change because we don't want to admit that we've wasted time. We don't want to change because we're afraid that— we're afraid to lose what we've achieved. What if we don't gain something when we change? And we feel that we're already too deeply invested, that we've spent too much time. So here's what I want to encourage you to do. I want to encourage you to be brave enough to change. I want to encourage you to be brave enough to walk away from that relationship if it's not the right one. I don't care how long you've been in it. I want to encourage you to go back for the college degree and to change your major if you realize that the one you've been aiming for wasn't the right one. I want to encourage you to change your insurance or whatever else you need to do in your processes and your personal plans, because the change, if you feel deep down that there's a change that needs to be made or at least investigated, has the opportunity to set you up for so many other things. I can tell you there are some things that I did not know that we needed to have insured that once I changed my insurance and they asked me some questions, I realized that there were things I did not have insured that I needed to have it. And I would have never come into the knowledge of that had I not made the change in the first place. Sometimes the pivot that you make has the power to open your eyes. The power of the pivot, number one, is that you get your life back. Your decision to be in charge of your life by making a change means that you are in charge of running your life and that your life is not in charge of running you. The power in your pivot is that you are responsible for deciding how you will spend the rest of the days regardless of how you spent your days formally. And often, regardless of how many days you have left, there is more power in living out your vision and your calling and doing that full front and full-faced and full throttle than being married to something that you said you were going to do 5 years ago, a year ago, or even 50 years ago. You have the power to live in your new normal. And in your new normal, if that's the place that God is calling you to, there's power in the pivot because you find yourself going with the winds of change, with the rivers of change. And when he's moving with you, when the breath of God is moving with you. You can accomplish more with him than you can in staying committed to the thing that you've done for years. There is power in your pivot because you have the ability to learn new things in new places. You will not be the same person in the new place that you have been in the old place because it takes such bravery to make sure that you're making a change, um, and not staying married to the things of old, that it changes who you are and how you engage with your When you make a change, especially when you go in a different direction than what you've been going in before, it changes you. You wake up to the power that you have to do things differently. It is never too late to do things differently. So when you become aware of something that needs to be different in your life, realizing that you get to choose, here's what you need to do. Number one, you need to admit that what you've been doing you don't want to do anymore. You need to admit that the way you set yourself up maybe wasn't the right thing, that the degree that you planned on wasn't the right degree. You've got to kind of admit, and that takes some grace and some compassion, to say, you know what, I was doing it wrong, or I was doing it right up to this point, but that was right then, this is right now. You've got to admit that something needs to change. That is the hardest part because nobody wants to admit that they made a bad decision. Nobody wants to admit that they did something the wrong way. Nobody wants to admit that they spent 10 years doing something that they never intended to do. Nobody wants to admit that they should have drawn the line a long time ago. That is a hard thing for somebody to look themselves in the mirror and say, oops, I made a mistake. The most important thing that you can do is to give yourself grace to say, you know what, I did it wrong, I did it too long, Or, "I just realized something and I did not know this." Admitting that you've been doing something one way and that you want to do something another way is the first step. The second thing is identify it. Identify the change that you're gonna make. Call it out, name it. And then identify not only the change that you wanna make, but the expectation that you have for what will change in your life when you make a shift. And then the third thing is count the cost. Know and own the cost of your change. Because the worst thing in the world is to pivot, to do something differently, and then to go, "Oh, I didn't know this was gonna happen." Count the cost. Like, decide up front, take your time, and know that when I do this, here's what could happen. Don't allow the fear of the unknown to make you hesitate in making a change. Admit that something's not right. Whyever it's not right, whatever the reason is that it's not right, that does not matter. Just admit that it's not right. Identify what change you wanna make and count the cost, and then you jump. I was looking at a website that said your dissatisfaction in combination with your vision, in combination with your first steps, once those three things are greater than your resistance for change, you'll do something different. So if you find yourself saying, I know I should do this, you know, I've been knowing this for some time. Let me tell you, let me tell you why you're not changing. You want to know? Let me tell you why you're not changing. You're not dissatisfied enough. You don't have a vision for who you want to be. You have no idea what the steps are. And each one of those things you can shift. First of all, you don't have to have 10 steps. You need to have one. One. There are some things in life that will only happen when you take the first step forward. The second thing is create a vision. You want to know why people create vision boards every year? It's because they're looking outside of themselves to say, what resonates with me? What picture am I seeing in a magazine, or what photo am I seeing online that exemplifies to me what I hope to see in my life? You're not dissatisfied enough because when you are actually fed up with your reality, you'll change. I was talking to a friend of mine who recently got divorced. Um, she moved to, moved away and, um, has restarted her whole life. She loves Jesus and her husband has had some challenges over the years, over the years, long, long, long, long time. And the Lord had given her freedom to move on from that relationship with him. She didn't want to. They've been married a long time. They've got kids, grandkids. She's really committed to their marriage and to their legacy. And she did not want to do that. And the Lord told her, you, you need to move on. Like, you've done everything you're supposed to do. You've been long-suffering and forgiving, and you've done everything you're supposed to do, but you need to move on. And she was so afraid to do that. Um, and then she realized that she was fed up. We all know somebody like that. There's a woman who hung in there. You know, for 20 years, 30 years. And we say, especially when you get past that 20-year mark, now what happened? They've already put in all that time. Like, what happened? I'll tell you what happened. He finally got fed up. Now I'm a proponent of staying married. You understand what I'm saying? There are circumstances that I believe that he gives us permission to move on when a person's been unfaithful or when there's abuse or you know, there's a list of things I believe that God says for women, "Hey, you're free to go." I don't think you should be frivolous about that, nor do I believe that just because the courts say you can, that you should say you can. God has a different system. That said, if a woman who's been married for 30 years who loves her husband and loves her family and everything that she's built can say, "I've had enough." And we probably all know somebody like that. That means that if you got to the third year in school and you need to change your degree, change it. If you are engaged to be married and if you spent the money on the photographer deposit and if you've already put the deposit down on your apartment, your new home, or you've already sent out the invitations and you know deep down in your gut he's the wrong one, call it off. If you're building that new home and you're gonna lose your money, your earnest money, this is not what God would have you do with your finances, don't do it. If you've served for 15 years in that ministry at church and everybody thinks that if you don't stick in that, stick with that leadership position, that the ministry will fall apart. But you know that God has called you to do something different. Leave things in order, but leave. Sometimes God will not bring the ram in the bush until you're out of the way. There is power in your pivot, and there are certain things you will only capture when you move because you recognize the winds have changed, that the snow is falling, that the weather has shifted and you need to do something different. The power in your pivot is that the notification that your mind and your heart and your soul— the notification that the Holy Spirit gives you is timely. It's a timely notification. It doesn't mean you can't change. You can always change. But pivoting is normally indicative of a seasonal shift that has happened quickly without notice that you have not been prepared for, and that you have to decide in one— you're taking a leap of faith and you're taking a risk. That the shift that you make in a moment may or may not work, it may or may not pay off, you may or may not have regrets later. But this is the beauty of living life. Now, of course, I want you to be sober of mind, and I don't want you to be foolish. I don't want you to make decisions that you regret because you didn't take the time to seek God and to pray about it. You should always, you should always do that. You should always know what God's word says. You should always know that the Holy Spirit is at work in you and that you should check in with him and pray and go with peace. But you have to know the difference between the peace that God gives and the peace that you won't have until you know the outcome. You can have peace in your heart because you know this is the right decision and still have a level of angst because you hope this turns out okay. And the key is to know the difference. The Bible talks about renewing your mind in Romans 12:2, and it says, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect. The pivot involves testing. Once you've done your part to think good thoughts, Philippians 4:8, once you've done your part to do your homework, to do your research, once you've done your part to use the brain God gave you and the common sense that you've gotten by living a little while, then You test it out. You test the waters. I've done this thing a couple of times. Fully clothed, I jump in the swimming pool. My kids wanted me to get in the pool one day. I didn't want to get in the pool, but they kept asking me and I didn't feel like putting on my bathing suit and, you know, it's just shimmying and all that. I didn't feel like it, but I just thought it's hot out here, you know, I'll dry off. And in a moment I just thought, jump in the pool. Fully clothed, I ran and jumped in the pool. I had on these tight jeans and a t-shirt. And my son, my youngest son, he said, "Whoa, why'd you do that?" I said, "I just felt like getting in the pool." A few months later, later in the summer, different clothes, different day. And I looked at him and I said, "I think it's time." He said, "Time for what?" And I just backed up and his eyes got big and he said, "Whoa, you're gonna do it?" And then as he said, "Again," I was jumping into the pool. And then later on another day, he said to me, "Mom, you're so fun." I said, "What?" He said, "You're so fun." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You're always just jumping in the pool." I didn't always jump in the pool. I did it twice. But here's what happened in his mind. Twice she's taken opportunities to jump in the pool unplanned, unprepared. She just did the thing. And that makes her a fun person. You know what makes you a person who has the power to change? You only have to be willing to make a pivot, to test the waters a couple times, and then you'll find that you're a person who can go with the flow, who can make changes. Now, here's the thing I did not do. I did not jump into that water without knowing what the temperature was. I kind of walked by it a couple times and dragged my foot in the water. I wanted to know what I was getting into, but I didn't spend all day hemming and hawing about whether or not to just jump in. So yeah, think about it. Use wisdom. Talk to a couple people. But the power in you pivoting is that the change that you make sometimes without a whole lot of forethought, a whole lot of, uh, you know, weeks and weeks, months and months of prayer, a whole lot of reading of books, the thing that you just know down deep you need to do, it changes the narrative about who you are with you. And once you realize that you have the power to change in one area of your life, it gives you the power to know that you can change in any area of your life. The Cherry on Top said, did I just all tell y'all to jump in the pool, hair and all? I kind of did. I kind of did. Kelly Frye, there it is. She said, our change enables change in others as well. It does, because when they witness that we have the power to make a change in our lives, and that things turn out okay. When they realize that the power in our pivoting started a domino effect of other things in our lives that we did not plan for, it makes them go, huh, maybe I should take a chance on me pivoting. Does not imply irresponsibility. It does not imply a lack of wisdom. It does not imply that you should not seek wise counsel. It does not imply that you shouldn't, um, do reading. Doesn't imply that you shouldn't pray about it, but it does imply that it will involve some risk. Yes, Arliss. That is the scary part. And when you decide to take on that risk, you do need to count the cost. I think about the Rolodex in my mind of the people who have made changes quickly. And there's one thing that is a common denominator for all of them. They caught the wave. You know, when people are surfing, you can go out there with a surfing board, a surfboard, and water and a bathing suit, and you can be out there and enjoy yourself. But something happens when you catch the wave, when you stop what you're doing and get in position so that the wave that's coming, you can ride it. Here's the benefit of believing in Jesus. Here's the benefit of staying in tune with God. When he has a move happening in this world, you get a hint of that, and you get to stay in the flow of what the Spirit of God is doing in this world. I was watching or listening to a podcast a few months ago. It was called Making Oprah. And, uh, yes, Renata, the risk is so worth it. And Tonice, the risk is necessary to do something great. Um, she said, Oprah said in an interview with this person, she said, what happened for me will never happen again. She said there were 3 network channels, there were men who were doing talk shows, The society was prime and ready for a woman to have a talk show, and a Black woman at that, because there was a move, of course, to have more women of color or people of color in front of the camera. So there was a narrow focus. I did not have much competition in terms of the 500, you know, cable channels and Hulu and Netflix and all the things. There were 3 network channels. And there was a period of time during the day when women who were coming home from picking up their kids from school where they wanted to connect with what was happening in the culture. And then there was a woman now who was on TV, a woman of color who was easily relatable, and 3 network channels. That setup created a wave that I was in the position to ride. Now, it's not to say that there won't be other people who do great things behind the camera and, you know, in the media world, she said. But what happened with me happened because there was an opportunity and I was poised and positioned to take it. Half of the ability to be empowered to pivot is that you are poised and ready to take it, which means that before opportunity presents itself, you have to get ready. You have to get ready. We had at the end of 2019, about 100 women in our membership. And I had a membership because I— people had said, Chrystal Hurst, how can I support what you do? And then we launched it at the in-person retreat in October of 2019. At the beginning of 2020, I had a goal. Um, I did have a goal. I was encouraged by a friend to set a goal. And then the pandemic hit and God said to me, Go live every day. I said, okay. You have to understand that I've been podcasting for 6 years, and the main reason why I podcasted is because I didn't want to be on camera. Being on camera means you have to get dressed and you have to look decent, and I pride myself on being a homebody and not doing anything to get ready for the day in the morning except be with my kids. Um, but God said go live every day. So the goal that I had for 2020, we tripled that goal. Not, not triple the membership, we tripled my goal. And the reason is, is because there was an opportunity that presented itself in that season to go live every day that I took. I didn't take it I didn't go with it because I was trying to do anything with the membership. I wasn't trying to use that as a way to grow it. I was going through an open door to do something I didn't feel comfortable doing, to use technology I didn't know how to use. Um, and that pivot, taking the opportunity to do what I was prepared and ready to do, which was talk to people. I've been talking to people for 6 years, but on video. That created an opportunity. And I want you to know that the reason why, when all of my speaking engagements dried up for 2020, that my family still ate was because the open door, the pivot that I was invited to take created a whole nother opportunity. I wasn't even, I didn't even dream about that. The risk that I'd look like a fool on camera. The risk that I wouldn't know what I was doing. The risk that there are so many people out there doing talk shows on the radio and on YouTube and on TV. Why do I need to add my voice to the mix? The risk that I wouldn't look decent in front of the camera. The risk that I didn't have a studio setup and that that would make me look like I did not have any authority. You know, who, who videos from their closet every day? But because I was willing to take the risk and do something that I was uncomfortable doing, that I didn't totally feel prepared to do, but I was following the wave that God indicated in my spirit that I was supposed to take, it totally changed the narrative of so many things in my life. I cannot tell you how many things I should have pivoted from in my life. Relationships, degrees, jobs, commitments, ministries, people. Here's what I've learned. The power in your pivot when you know down deep that God is calling you to do something different Half of what will shift in your life as a result of you being obedient, you don't even know yet. But when you pivot and take the risk, when you are sure that God is leading you, directing you, you know, don't be taking pivots and risks and you don't never read your Bible and you don't never pray, and then you'd be like, I didn't know. Oof, I didn't know that this was gonna be a bad decision. Oh my goodness. You know, you need to do it with wisdom underneath your belt. However, when you do it, there are doors that will open that you don't even know about. And here's what happens when you pivot, when you take risks in your life, when you take opportunities and walk through doors you didn't see coming. It gives you confidence. Because you can move through the rest of your life knowing that sometimes when you walk through doors not knowing where they lead, the best things are just out of view. Pivoting has the power to teach you that risk-taking isn't bad. Pivoting has the power to teach you that you can have vision for your life without knowing exactly how you get there. And pivoting has the power to teach you that sometimes dissatisfaction with your life, a holy dissatisfaction, is all you need to make a change. So admit where you've been barking up the wrong tree or climbing the wrong ladder. Identify the changes that you want to make and then count and know the cost of your changes. And then take the leap. I only can tell you with confidence to take a leap in your life and make a pivot when you are already in tune with God, when you are already in tune with yourself, when you already understand the importance of walking in wisdom and seeking wise counsel. But when you walk in those spaces and there becomes an opportunity for you to shift, and you know it deep down in your knower, sometimes it's only because you're willing to pivot that you recognize the power that you actually have. Don't be frivolous. Don't be unfaithful. Don't be the person who can't stick with anything. If that's you, I'm not talking to you because you might need to stick with something and quit pivoting all the time. I'm talking to the person who is faithful, and committed and has a hard time making a shift because you're afraid, a hard time making a shift because what will people say, a hard time making a shift because you've already invested your time, energy, or resources, and it just seems like if you pivot now, it's a waste. I'm talking to you when you feel the winds changing, and you know, and you know, decide. That's it. Decide. And here's a question that I will ask you. Sheila said, that's a good disclaimer. Yeah. Cause some people, you know, they're looking for reasons to leave their husband. They're looking for reasons to leave their church. They're looking for reasons to be, you know, inconsistent and irresponsible. I'm not talking to you. What I'm saying is when the winds change and the waves are rolling and God has said to you, Chrystal Hurst, do it. We say on our team all the time that pivoting is pivotal to our team. In fact, when we were bringing on new interns and making that decision, one of the things that we said is people on your team need to be willing to to pivot because you'll decide in a hot second, we're doing something different today. Um, what I've learned is when I know, I know. I was afraid that the retreat that we held in 2019— who am I to host an event and have a retreat? And we weren't going to do it, and then we were, and then we weren't. And then I went to church on New Year's Eve, and it was clear as day. In fact, another girl who, who's a good friend of mine was at church, and she walked up to me after church and she said, did you hear what I heard? And I said, I heard it. We're supposed to do it. We did it, and we sold out. There have been a few times in my life where I knew, where I knew, and I made a shift. And I didn't know what the outcome was. I didn't know how it all turned out, but I knew. And every time you pivot because you are following the guidance of God in your life, because you have been, because you have this sense of something deep down in your soul, every time you do that, you become a stronger decision maker, you become a better risk taker, and you become more convinced and confident in following the guidance of your spirit, of the Holy Spirit in your life, and following the guidance of your intuition. God gave us that. He gave us Girls, that— and the more you do it, the better you get at it. I was not going to go to, um, California in March of 2019. Um, my dad was getting an award, and originally I was going to go, but then my kids had a basketball tournament, and that would have meant we were going from California to Missouri, and the tickets were outrageous, and we were going to be out of town for 2 weeks, and It just didn't seem feasible. And I was telling my mom about how I was trying to look through all the plans and figure it out. She said, "Chrystal, don't come. Your dad is getting an award. He's going to be on stage for 5, maybe 10 minutes. Like, it's really okay." It just didn't feel well not going. I didn't feel right about not going. I told her I wasn't going to go and I didn't feel right. And so right before the 21 days, when the ticket prices shot up, I bought her tickets. I bought her tickets. Tickets to California. I booked a hotel and I called my mom and I said, I don't know why, but we're supposed to be there. That was the decision I made in January— in February, mid-February. And we went to this event with my family. My siblings were all there. I took my kids. And the week before, my mother found out that her cancer had returned. After my dad received his award, and all day long we were trying to figure out what was wrong with, what was wrong with them. They just seemed weird. Right after he got his award, he said, "I need you to meet me in our room." And all 4 of us met them in the room and he told us that my mom's cancer had come back. I didn't know that I was supposed to be there. I didn't know why I was supposed to be there, but I knew. I couldn't shake it. And so on a dime, I made a decision, taking money from a place we had not planned to spend it. Trying to figure out how I was gonna, you know, replace it. And so that money would be there for the purposes that we had originally intended. But I knew, I knew. Sometimes the pros and cons do add up. Sometimes your decision-making power is based in you taking your time. In fact, many decisions are made that way. And when you are able to move through your life in with a rhythm that allows you to do things in a planned way. You should, you, you should plan, you should think things through, you should pray over things and take your time making decisions. But often the winds change in life, and the power that you have as a person is you have the ability to sense it. You just sense the winds change. It's like people that talk about they know when it's going to rain because their bones ache. There's something in you that notices when the weather is shifting. It's a part of the you you can't see. It's just, it's built in. You know, scientists and psychologists will call it the, the lizard brain, the reptilian brain. When they talk about evolution, it's the part of you that's animalistic because It's the part of you where the hair stand up on the back of your neck when something— when danger is happening. Okay. But I believe that, yeah, I believe that there is some physicality to that, but I also believe that there's a lot of soulishness to that, meaning that God built into you the ability to notice things that are happening that you can't see. The power that we have as Christians is that we're not just tied into the spiritual in general. We are tied into the spiritual and God's interpretation of the spiritual. His eye on the spiritual, so that we're not just in some spiritual randomness, that we are actually tied into the will of God for our lives. But we have the ability to notice the winds change, which means that a lot of your power is actually in your ability to pivot. Make decisions, stand by your decisions unless the winds change. So here's my question for you. I would love for you to answer this in the comments, in the chat here if you're watching live, and in the comments down below if you're watching the replay. I want you to sit still for just a second and ask yourself this question: Where are the winds changing? And I know it, I can feel it, I can't shake it. Because some of you right now You know, that's, that's all I can say. You just know. Yes, Gwendolyn Williams, we have an internal radar, and that is God-breathed. Oh, I love this. Jamila Harris says, I canceled and then rescheduled my Christmas visit with my father, and he passed away that July, and I didn't know it would be our last Christmas together. I just felt it. Yeah, yes, another word is discernment. Yes, yes. Where do you need to free yourself to pivot? And here's all I can tell you now: when I make business decisions— and I'm a horrible decision maker— when I like need to make a decision and I'm trying to like look at all the facts and make the perfect decision, it's horrible. I take way too long to make decisions. But here's what I've learned: when I know, I know. And I will tell the girls on the team, I will tell my husband, I can't, I can't spell it out for you. I can't make this make sense to you. I can't give you the list of pros and cons. I just know. I just know. When you realize that you can pivot in your decision-making and you see pivot after pivot, decision after decision that wasn't pre-planned, that those decisions were God-breathed— oh my goodness, it makes you a really powerful person. Because you are able to operate not just on what you see. Do you know how many people operate just on what they see? Operating on what you see is limiting. It's limiting. You are able to tap into your knower, the Holy Spirit, your intuition, the radar, your discernment. When you're able to tap into that and you can operate beyond what you see, which means making decisions you didn't plan to make, riding waves you did not plan to ride, making shifts you didn't plan to make. There's power in being willing to pivot. You don't have to know how everything turns out to make the right decision. Pastor Steph said it's important to be led by the Spirit of God. He gives clear, concise direction and then move, but not until. Mm-hmm. If you need somebody to give you permission to pivot, okay, you have permission. Figure out what are the things you're supposed to stay faithful with. Be faithful. Don't pivot from those things, okay? Because if you know you pivot too much, you already know the things that are, that are not right, that you need to stick with. You already know what those things are, you know what I mean? Don't pivot from drinking water. Don't pivot from eating vegetables. Don't pivot, like, you know what I mean? You stick with certain things. There are certain things you stay faithful towards. You don't pivot from reading your Bible. You don't pivot from being on time for work. Work, you know, you don't pivot from those things. But do you pivot? Like, some of y'all skip a job every year, okay? But that's not what I'm talking about. If you don't need to pivot, you already know that without me telling you that. You already know you make too many changes. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the people who, who are— when shifts happen and they don't take them. Like, you know, one of the things that I think moms need to recognize is that we have the ability to know. You know, I mean, it's like, you know, when the kids are little, you know, when they're too quiet, you notice when they're too quiet, right? Your knower says your kids are too quiet, but this works when they're teenagers and young adults. And I said this when my daughter was in the third grade, and, or the second grade, I think. No, no, no, no, no. Fifth grade. Fifth grade. I was walking, actually she was at our church's school at the time and she, she was doing something she shouldn't have been doing. I don't know, but I happened to walk by the gym, saw her, didn't say anything. So later on that day, I said, "So today, you know, why were you doing this?" And she was like, "How did you know?" And I said, "Oh, 'cause God told me." And I said, "You need to know God talks to me, honey, and he tells me everything I need to know. So you can tell me, or I can find out, or God can just tell me, but I will know." I was saying that, you know, I was young and dumb. I was just making that up, right, to scare her. And it's like Santa Claus. But then I realized, oh my gosh, there's truth in that statement. As a mother, you know, you know when your kids need you to call. You know when you just— some may write, you know, when they need a letter or care package, or they need you to pray over them. And maybe you don't even call them, you just get on your knees because you just know. There's something down deep in you, you just know. Yep, moms have spidey senses for sure. Yep, 100%. And you, you need to, you need to recognize that that is your superpower. Like, it's like, I mean, I don't know how else to say it. Like, you as a woman have a superpower. As a woman who loves God, you have a superpower cubed. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You just know what you know that you know that you know it. But the power in pivoting because you know is that you actually start believing that you know. That's the thing. Yep. That's the thing. You have the power to change. And when you decide deep down that change is what you need to do, and you know that making a change in a certain area of your life will have results, you may not know exactly what the results will be. But you know something will shift in your life when you exercise your power to pivot, man, wonderful things happen. I would love for you to share in the comments right now what you are going to change, where you have the power in your life to pivot. And I know you have something to share because you do have power. If it's been helpful to you, I'd love for you to share it. And then I will see you right here next week.